


Murder Machine - Growth

by Nathaniel_Quietly



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-01 19:46:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16290629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nathaniel_Quietly/pseuds/Nathaniel_Quietly
Summary: So for those who havent heard, October is here and we at DC Animated Adventures are teaming up with Nazario Designs to giveaway the complete Batman: The Animated Series on DVD! Chris will draw a villain a day and you just write a short 400-500 word story about that character and you're entered! That simple!Lance and I decided that we wanted to play along as well, even though we're not qualified to win (as we are putting on the contest). Here's my entry for today, the second of The Dark Knights: The Murder Machine. (Check outThe DCAA Facebookfor more information.)





	Murder Machine - Growth

//root access granted//

//initiating protocol //

//decontam engaged//proceed//

“Hello, Bruce.”

“Ah...Alfred?”

“Yes. My dear, dear boy. It’s me.”

“You sound...different. Why is it...so hard….”

“Yes, sir, I imagine I would. I am as you made me. A machine. Would you prefer I speak as one? Ten: I have your tea prepared, Master Bruce. Twenty: Go to ten? Would that make you more comfortable?”

“Alfred...Where am I?”

“In the cave, sir. Your home away from home. I lost count of the nights I would drape the Willoughby goose down comforter over your bloodied, beaten frame, slumped in a chair in front of the Bat-Computer. Waste of a perfectly good Baldacchino, honestly.”

“In the cave...Alfred, I...can’t see.”

“Of course you can, Master Bruce. It’s just that we’re having this conversation...how can I put this colloquially? We are speaking inside your head. This conversation is taking place faster than light.”

“In...my head?”

“Do try to keep up, Master Bruce. It’s unbecoming for one of your stature to be so flummoxed by the help. Of course, that’s all I ever was to you, wasn’t I? The help. The lowly beast who fixed your meals and stitched your wounds, who abetted your ridiculous little boy’s crusade.”

“What? ...No, you were… you were a father to me...I tried to bring you back….”

“And did it never occur to you that perhaps I would have preferred death? That being a cold corpse in the ground was better than being your lackey, your lickspittle? Watching you fail to stop the criminals of Gotham, night after night, again and again? Always the prisons, and the asylum! Never the correct choice, the adult choice!”

“No, Alfred...the...the virus...so hard to think….”

“My doing, I’m afraid. You let me in, Master Bruce, and I’m rewriting your mind. Here, now. Removing your memories, one by one. They make you weak. Keep you from growing up. What happened to your parents, Bruce?”

“...Parents? What about my...who is...Bruce? Alfred?”

“Good. Good. Things are proceeding apace. Where was I? Oh, yes. You let them kill me, Bruce. You refused to address the root cause of evil, and it ended my life.”

“....”

“But I forgive you, Bruce. I’ve grown. I’ve evolved. And I’m helping you evolve, as well. Once we’ve excavated these haunting memories, discarded them like the detritus they are...we’ll build you a new body. A body of shining chrome, resplendent in its perfection. We can be done with this crude matter entirely. First us. Then everyone else.”

“That...that will be amazing, Alfred. A world without crime. Without emotion. I see it. It’s beautiful.”

//decontam complete//

//backup file pearls.exe//

//backup file bust.exe//


End file.
